Vinny Hong
History As a child Vinny was bullied for the way he looked and had few friends. He was friends with Minu and June and was one of the first few members of Zephyrus Crew. According to June, Vinny was a better rider than Minu. Vinny was raised by a single mother and does not have a lot of money due to Minu's father opening a superstore next to his mother's privately-owned supermarket, which was named after him. As a child he was caught in a house fire, causing both him and his mother to be hospitalized. His mothers face has been burned and a huge scar all over one half of her face was left behind. After that the other kids were gossiping about him and his mother, saying that he is some kind of albino or has a weird disease and his mother would be a monster. At some point Vinny couldn't endure this anymore and started being aggressive and going berserk all over every little thing. In school, he gets beaten by teachers and is often suspended for ruining the schools image. During the first part of the Manhwa Vinny was suspended indefinitely, after the teachers saw the video of a brutal fight between him and Dom. His best friend is Sung. Personality "One thing that I've noticed in life is that people trample on and beat down anyone who thinks and looks different from themselves. Why? Does it give them a sense of superiority? I feel the only way for me to survive is to beat these a**holes at their own game.. If the only other option is to be treated like s#it by jerks like this just for being different then id rather just go insane like a rabid dog and tear them all to shreds since the world is freaking unfair anyway." -Vinny (ep 53) Vinny is seen by others as a dangerous lunatic, good for nothing and a freak. Because of this, he puts up an emotional wall surrounding himself and doesn't get along well with others. As a child he was a sweet kid who was constantly teased. As he endured a lot of teasing, his feelings just kept on bottling up. He cares deeply about his mom and does not tolerate anyone who disrespects his mother. He often blames himself for the misfortune bought upon his mother emotionally and physically and was willing to sell his bike to pay for his mothers surgery. He has the tendency to be irrational when solving problems. People might as well call him a monster created by society. When Jay and Minu ran away from home, they went to Vinny's house and stayed there for a couple days along with Dom, even though he had no reason to stay there. Despite the fact that Vinny is constantly telling them to go home, they stay and Vinny does not kick them out. When the otakus were being bullied for the way they look, Vinny beats up the bullies because the whole situation reminded him of the time he was bullied. When Sung was about to commit suicide because of bullying, Vinny tells him that if he has the courage to die, use it to change himself first. Appearance Vinny is a young man with wild, wavy red hair and different colored eyes. One is red and the other is blue. This condition is called heterochromia. His ears are pierced. He also has 2 moles under his left eye. Relationships Aside from caring in a somewhat jerk-like manner for his mom, Vinny doesn't have too many relationships that may be considered seriously. The first friend he has is Minu, because Vinny was the only person available that Minu could ride with and other kids ostracizing Vinny as a child. Later on, his relationship with Minu sours due to a catastrophic race between the two, a gang fight between Minu's high school and Vinny's and when Minu distances himself from the Hummingbird crew due to his father and acting like, for lack of a better term, a "rich prick". However, their relationship remains particularly normal and doesn't get swayed much aside from the aforementioned events. Another important relationship Vinny has is with his close friend Sung, a classmate of his who used to be bullied for his money. Sung tried to take his life by jumping off the school building, but Vinny noticed him there. He said, "If you have the courage to die, then use it to change yourself first, dumba$$". Sung did change himself and found out that nothing happened to him afterwards. Since then, Sung became Vinny's friend and they experienced things together. After Vinny gets his bike destroyed by Hwangyeon Choi (go to last para.), Sung goes to Minu and asks if Vinny can join the Hummingbird crew. Vinny also gets arrested and Sung pays the bail money, but Vinny seems almost crazy, saying that he can't even think rationally with his mother being in her situation. Sung gets angry at Vinny and repeats the words that Vinny told him, and he also gets a new bike for Vinny, for which he is extremely grateful for. Their bond is stable and is continuing as the story progresses. Vinny has a sort of casual relationship with all members of the Hummingbird crew, including those outside the loop, like Mia and Yuna. He has a slightly enhanced relationship with Dom, as he does work part time at Dom's club later in the story. A somewhat influential relationship that Vinny has is with TJ Kim, leader of the Zephyrus crew once Minu leaves it. TJ records a video of Vinny's school, Gunn High, versus Sunny High, which comprises of Minu and the others, which he leaks and gets Vinny suspended from school. Vinny gets to know that TJ was the one who released the video and since TJ is scared of him, he makes TJ and his crew help the Hummingbird crew in the next race of the League of Street. After that, no contact is made between the two except for when the Hummingbird and Zephyrus crew clash now and then in the races. Another relationship is with the Manga crew, especially the 'otaku' who is enamored by 'Sena Chan'. When Vinny is heading back home from a race, he comes upon the sight of the otaku being beaten up by a couple of bullies who scorn his physique and obsession with anime. The otaku yells about how he is oppressed by society just because he is different from the people in it, and that other cannot say that what he does is completely "wrong". Vinny was treated just like that when he was younger and even in the present, so he goes ahead and beats up the bullies but without any compassion for the otaku. A bit later, the otaku's crew shows up and gangs on the remaining bullies as well. Once the fight is over, the otaku and his crew look up to Vinny, but him being the "damn tsundere" that he is, he tells them to screw off. Because of his heterochromia, one of his eyes resembles a "sharingan", a magical eye that is widely present in the anime Naruto, and so, Vinny is now looked up to by the Manga crew as the Sharingan from the Uchiha clan. Later in the story, there's a team battle where four teams group into pairs of two and face off against each other in a race. The Hummingbird and Manga crew group together because Vinny told them to join, and they end up winning the round by a close margin. After those events, nothing prominent happens yet. In terms of negative relationships, the most influential one is with Hwangyeon Choi, leader of the Ghost crew. Hwangyeon bullied Vinny excessively as a child, but Vinny got his revenge (to the delight of all the readers) then. Later in the story, however, Vinny is challenged by Hwangyeon to a race, but Vinny loses due to sabotage and his bike is destroyed. Once Mia's life related to being a model is messed up by Hwangyeon, Minu, Vinny, and Dom get into a battle with the Ghost crew and Vinny gets his payback. At the moment, he and the Hummingbird crew are all very much against the Ghost crew and its members. There's also the fact that the female leader of the Tarantula is in love with Vinny. This starts with Hwangyeon trying to pick up girls from the Tarantula team, but then Vinny interjects and badmouths him away, so the leader has eyes for him. She appears once in a while, wanting Vinny to notice her and even reacting joyfully to the smallest actions that he makes. The only other times that significant interactions happen is when the Tarantula crew goes head to head against the Hummingbird crew, but Vinny doesn't show up. Near the end of the episodes concerning the race, Vinny stands as a spectator and Tarantula's leader catches sight of him, which puts her in sudden shock, probably making her concentrate a little less and slow down, where Jay catches up to her. Another interaction is when the Hummingbird crew goes on a field trip and Vinny gets drunk on Ginseng wine at a beach. The leader and a few members of the Tarantula crew also happen to be there, and they get drunk as well, with the leader sidling up to Vinny and being close while punch-drunk. The status quo is that the leader is still trying to get Vinny to notice her and him generally ignoring her, so all that can be done is to wait and see as to what happens next. The bike Vinny's steed is a "fixie" bike with a riser bar instead of the common drop bars present on the rest of the bikes in the story. Many riser bar fixies are popular, some of the most notable being rather on the cheaper end of the spectrum or extremely durable premium bikes. In this case, Vinny rides a custom pink fixed gear with a Nagasawa keirin frame (which is made of steel but is described as a carbon fiber frame in the webtoon), a Spinergy Rev X front wheel and generic deep dish rear wheel. The frame is quite expensive, ranging from $500 to $2500, though Vinny's frame is a rare pink one, being placed in the $2000 - $2500 range. The Spinergy Rev X is a carbon wheel notorious for breaking, but due to plot armor, it stays miraculously intact on Vinny's bike, costing about $400. The rear wheel may be carbon, but a price estimate could be between $100 - $300 based on wild guesses. True to Vinny's wild nature, the bike is partially sticker bombed, mostly on the down tube of the frame. Vinny tries to enter the League of Street, but he can't do so without a crew. He gets challenged by Hwangyeon Choi, leader of the Ghost Crew, to a race, where if Vinny wins, he gets to use the crew's name to enter the League. In the race, Vinny loses due to Hwangyeon sticking a toy sword into his bike's front wheel and flipping Vinny over when racing in the dark. Hwangyeon destroys Vinny's bike with a sledgehammer, as that was part of the deal that Vinny wasn't told about and so, Vinny has no bike. His friend, Sung, buys him a new bike with a very similar build. It is another Japanese riser bar bike with a pink and purple Anchor keirin frame going for $800 and simple black spoked wheels with a pink rear tire. With this bike, Vinny joins the Hummingbird crew made by Minu with the others and they all compete in the League of Street. Category:Gunn high students Category:Characters Category:Humming bird